Guide-support for locomotive-engines.



No. 722,892. PATENTED M RQN, 1903.

J. PLAYER.- GUIDE SUPPORT FOR LOGOMOTIVE ENGINES,

APPLICATION FILED JULY 5, 1902.

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:No. 722,892. PATENTED MAR.'17,"19'03. J.. PLAYER. GUIDE SUPPORT FOR LOGOMOTIVB ENGINES,

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1%. 722,892. v I PATEN-TED MAR. 17, 1903.. J'. PLAYER.

GUIDE SUPPORT FOR LOGOMOTIVE ENGINES.

APPLICATION PILED'JULY 5, 1902.

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UNITED STATES YATENT FFICE.

JOHN PLAYER, OF DUNKIRK, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

GUIDE-SUPPORT FOR LOCOMOTIVE-ENGINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 22,892, dated March 17, 1903,

Application filed J' 11] y 5, 1902. erial No. 114,329. (No model.) I

T0 in whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I,'JO HN PLAYER, of Dunkirk, in the county of Chautauqua and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Guide-Supports for Locomotive-Engines, of which improvemeut the following is a specification.

My invention more particularly relates to tandem compound locomotive-engines, but is also applicable to other types of engines; and its object is to provide means for supporting the forward end of the cross-head guides which shall be readily and inexpensively adaptable in engines of the present standard types and by the employment of which access may be afiorded to the packing of the low-pressure pistons of tandem compound engines when desired without involving the necessity of taking down the guides for that purpose, as has heretofore been the case.

The improvement claimed is hereinafter fully set forth. 7

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a view, partly in elevation and partly in section, of the forward portion of a locomotiveengine having my improvement applied; Fig. 2, a transverse section on the line a; w of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a side view, in elevation and on an enlarged scale, of a guide-support detached; and Fig. 4, a rear view of the same.

My invention is herein illustrated as applied in connection with a locomotive-engine of the tandem compound type which is supported on driving-wheels 1, two pairs only of which are indicated, and leading-wheels 2, the smoke-box at of the boiler 4 being connected to the frames '8 through the intermediation of cylinder-saddles 12 in the ordinary manner. The low-pressure cylinders 12. are in this instance formed integral with the cylinder-saddles and the high-pressure cylinders .12 are secured to the forward ends'ofthe low-pressure cylinders in lineaxially therewith. The high and low pressure cylinders are fitted with pistons 40 and 40 respectively, fitted with suitable packing-rings 40 and secured upon a common piston-rod 40,which passes through stufiing-boxes in the cylinder-heads and carries upon its rear end a cross-head 11, fitted the forward endsof the cross-head guides have always been connected to and supported bylugs on the back heads of the cylinders. As the pistons are inserted and removed through the front ends of the cylinders, this construction has not been found to be objectionable or inconvenient in two cylinder engines, either simple or compound, or in four-cylinder compound engines having the cylinders of each pair located in different axial planes; but in tandem compound engines, a type which is now being adopted to a considerable extent, it involves the substantial objection of requiring the guides to be taken down to enable a low-pressure piston to be withdrawn through the rear end of the cylinder when it is necessary to obtain access to the packingrings of said piston for renewal or adjustment. Still greater inconvenience and delay would result ifthe piston were moved out of'the cylinder through its front end, as in such case the high-pressure cylinder must be removed. My invention renders the packing-rings of the low-pressure piston accessible without necessitating either of the operations above noted and correspondingly promotes the facility and despatch with which any required renewal or adjustment of the packing may be effected.

In the practice of my invention I provide a guide support or bracket 10, which is preferably, as shown, an integral casting composed of two substantially vertical members stiffened by ribs or flanges and connected by transverse webs of metal near their upper and lower ends, on the lower and upper surfaces of which connecting-webs there are formed horizontal flanges or bearing-faces 10" and 10, respectively, to which the forward ends of the upper and lower guide bars 11 are bolted. Arms 10 which extend forwardly in substantially horizontal direction, are formed upon the support 10 above and below the bearing-faces 10 and 10", the length of said arms being about equal to the combined thickness of the back head 12 of the low-pressure cylinder and of its piston 40 and a clear space being left between the inner sides of the arms sufficiently great to admit of the passage of the back cylinder-head. Vertical flanges or bearing-faces 10 are formed on the front ends of the arms 10 said flanges having boltholes 10 for the reception of bolts by which the support is connected to the rear end of the low-pressure cylinder 12".

In order to obtain access to the packingrings of the low-pressure piston in an engine in which my improvement is applied, it is only necessary to detach the rear head of the low-pressure cylinder and slide it on the piston-rod into the space between the arms 10 of the guide-support and to disconnect, as usual, one end of the connecting-rod from the main crank-pin or from the cross-head pin, as the case may be. The low-pressure piston may then be moved out of the back end of the cylinder and the desired adjustment or renewal of the packing be readily effected. The economy of time and labor which is atrained will be obvious to those familiar with locomotive-engine construction and operation, and it Will also be seen that the application of the improvement involves no structural complication or modification of the general design or essential features of any of the present types of locomotives.

The rear ends of the guides 11 may be supported in any known and preferred manneras, for example, by a bracket 10 connected to a guide-yoke 9, which is in turn connected to the boiler 4, as in ordinary practice.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. A support for the front ends of locomotive guide-bars, having a substantially vertical body which is flanged for connection to guide-bars, and is provided, at its upper and lower ends, with forwardly-extending arms, separated by a space sufiicient to admit a cylinder-head,and flanged, at their forward ends, for connection to a cylinder.

2. A support for the front ends of locomotive guide-bars, having a body composed of two substantially vertical members connected by transverse webs near their upper and lower ends, flanges on said connecting-webs for the attachment of upper and lower guide-bars, arms extending forwardly from said connecting-webs and separated by a space sufficient to admit a cylinder-head, and flanges on the forward ends of said arms for connection to a cylinder.

3. In a locomotive-engine, the combination of a cylinder, cross-head guides, and a support or bracket interposed between, and connected to, the cylinder and guides, said support providing a space between the cylinder and the adjacent ends of the guides into which the cylinder-head and the piston may be moved longitudinally.

.4. In a locomotive-engine, the combination of a cylinder, cross-head guides whose forward ends are located in rear of the cylinder for a distance substantially equal to the combined thickness of the cylinder-head and piston, and a support or bracket connected to the guides and having forwardly-extending ,arms connected to the cylinder, the space between said arms being suflicient to admit the cylinder-head between them.

5. In a tandem compound locomotive-engine, the combination of a low-pressure cylinder, a high-pressure cylinder located in advance thereof and in axial line therewith, pistons fitting said cylinders and fixed upon a common piston-rod, a cross-head fixed to said piston-rod, cross-head guides on which said cross-head traverses, and a guide support or bracket interposed between, and connected to, the low-pressure cylinder and the guides, said support providing a space between the low-pressure cylinder and the adjacent ends of the guides into which the lo w-pressu re cylinder-head and piston may be moved longitudinally.

JOHN PLAYER.

Witnesses:

J. G. BLUNT, J. M. CHAPMAN. 

